The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-08-04
Protection to Home Industry.

now practiced by every one of the enlighteue
nations of the world, and in some of them. Ill;
Germany, both are employed. The fathers ,
} our great republic early saw the necessity
fostering home industry.
The second act of Congress, signed by III
great Washington, read thus 'sWhereas it
necessary for the support of government fo
. the discharge of the debts the United State
fshd the c11coa"dgenfnt md protectioarof maae
JactetreS, that duties be laid on goods, wares an
merchandise imported, &C., &c.
Jefferson in 1916, wrote: ITO be independer
for the comforts of life we must fabricate thei
ourselves" IS stHa0e make oar o,On comforts {
90 Oitsostt enl q. ne aeiU Of q Joreign nation y
therefore, tssJ is ae against domestic 12on2ttot
ta1es must % for rcaucing either 10 eoeadenc
upon that NJ iG o. TO be clothed Ia skins and la
ttNc oeftSfS "a aelts did cGVeTnS. an proud to So
: i an not one 0ftheSe.''
And Jefferson rs citizen, after his retire
nent from Office exempliiied the above, for h
established nail works aud with his own hand
fabricated furniture at his elegant home.
We can quote nearly all the fathers of tn
Republic in favor of protection.
Webster said, in 1874, speaking for protec
ton Il defy the man in any degree CONVEX
SAINT with history. in any degree acquainte
adoption OF the constitution in 1883, to say thi
YVES not q ieadinG--I may say the leading--mo
OF new government. Without that provision
| adopted
And Webster won the proud title of eth,
great expounder of the Constitution"
How idle the claim of some of our Younger
pubic men, that protective tariffs are uncon
| by the founders of this republic.
How harsh and thoughtless the utterance.
OF other advocates of free trade who proclaim
that ''prOtection is robbery
| What have great men in other lands said and
| done?
| Napoleon. the greatest organizer of modern
times, declared at st. Helena "Though ou1
empire were made of adamant, free trade would
| grind 1t to POWDER
He by prohibitory duties and by subsidizine
manufactures made France commercially in
| dependent.
| md 81 otoc,,,
| influence of self interest. Thus we see South
Carolina through her Legislature in 1908 passing
| str0ng resoIutlons favoring protection, and her
| leading statesmen voting Tor it In Congress,
yet IN 1910, actually seeking to nulIify the laws
OF Congress for collecting tariff duties.
AND England strongly protective in her pol
| icy for hundreds of years, having attained such
| supremacy in manufactures during The NanO-
| leonlc wars, While the continent of Europe was
| one vast camp of contending forces, finding
! herself able, began that career of expansion
| which finally fell to the adoption OF her So
| laws in the fifth decade Of this century
ihose laws collected a duty on imported
grain, and were in the interest of the land
| owners,
| Cheap bread was needed for her operatives to
enable them to maintain competition with the
labor of continental Europe.
1t was only after long agitation however
that it was accomplished,
But is trade free in England?
1t is In the same sense that it is here as TO
cotton, which is duty free, though we produce
more than all the world outside, and in tea and
SVAiSS "lllOH W Z uO pfOuuc6. she collects
stn an enormous revenue on wines and liquors
which are imported. and on beer and on to-
paccos vastly higher revenue than America
exacts.
Free trade. like free everything else sounds
very plausible in free republic. But self in
terest IS the first care of nations which are or,
are to be, great
England is great because Englishmen are for
thelr country. Her people are true Britons.
Americans can much more safely and profita-
ply copy IN this respect, than in accepting her
aoctflnes upon monc-metallism and her pseudo
Cannot Americans see how she has protected
her marine interests by enormous subsidies to
steam ship lines sailing to every part of the
By a system of enormous bounties she over
came the danger which American clipper
bul!t ships threatened SO seriously up to the
beginning of our civil war.
That war with the encouragement of priva-
teeIlng gave serious blow to US. The success
ful application of steam, and the use of iron In
stead OF wood in building ships completed the
work.
But has it been free competition
One nation with vast annual subsidies and a
plant" and dock-yards built when we were
lght1ng for existence. The other with it's
marines chased from the ocean by privateers
sailing from British ports, had it's hands full in
reconstructing its wasted places and engaged
itself in building up the gigantic Industrial
fabric we have to-day which is giving Great
Britain more concern than when our clipper
ships almost monopoltzed the tea trade OF
emma, Tor there was a time when shippers
paid Quickly % cents per chest more, freight to
American me ships than to English.
Wltn the same subsidies which are paid by
Great britain America could again contest that
great field-the carrying trade of the world.
But tle popular cry was against it in Amer
lea. we had not the motive to sustain great
naval power, by such command of fleet steam
ships for transports.
We have no colonies excepting Alaska
:, our only line OF credltable ocean steamers
the Australian, sailing from san Francisco
was doing more to extend American commerce
and maintain American credit as a mercantile
poWe than any line that ever sailed from
American ports.
xnl anj1
British mails We're sent more rapidly, by days,
across our continent TO Australia than by their
own Suez Canal route, till the present admin
1stration. Din open violation of law it is
charged,) Withdrew the mail contract. We
suppose it was one of the First steps toward
free trade which we heard of in the tariff de-
bates in 1886.
An insidious blow struck just as the one
hurled at John Roach, the first successful
builder of iron steamships in America.
Trying to secure free ships, that is ships
built on the Clyde instead Of the Delaware, the
first step to ruin the one American WHO
was Illustrating the practibility of building our
own iron vessels. and Roach was ruined.
After pursuing a changable and uncertain
policy for years, this country in the throes OF
q great contest for national life, was compelled
TO build upon its own great resources. and a
high protective tariff act passed by the
first Republican Congress in 1861
About the same time the Confederate States
Incorporated into their consti tuition an article
which Jof6dde any such legislation by their
Congress.
Under the impulse of such action a tide of
ACTIVITY set III Which perVaded all the states of
the Union. Manufactures, commerce and agri-
culture expanded and tiourished never be
fore.
Vast revenues were levied and annually col
lected and yet the burden was scarcely felt
Our reunited county, Notwithstanding the
enormous destruction OF property in the war
for the Union, has under the policy then form
ulated, not only made up that waste, but has
so multiplied its productive power that to-day
it stands in the front as the greatest manufac.
turing nation ill the world, the greatest in
point of agricultural production, and i'll point
of wealth as the richest
This record ought to be sufficient reply to
the covert assaults upon the system of pro-
lection.
We say covert for our opponents have three
times changed their platforms in National
conventions and the last time in 1884 so
deity, that it could be interpreted to meet all
shades of opinion,
Republicans have steadfastly, from the first
National convention of the party, maintained
true American policy. They have time and
again modified and lowered the dut les and en-
larged the free list, and they would have
affected still greater reform had they remained
i'll power, for every Republican of intelligence
knows that our present tariff needs amend
mentS.
But every true Republican is a supporter of
that cardinal doctrine OF protection. They re-
moved the duties on tea and coffee which are
not produced by us, yet upon which tariff for
revenue could be most easily collected.
In the present state of depression which is so
keenly felt by the farmers of our country more
particularly, and by business men generally
the enemies of protection are alert and active
me decline In values is so great to matte
rally effect the standing of large numbers of
most deserving men.
With some plausabilty it is all charged TO a
burdensome tariff, though none of the assault
ants have suggested a single measure of reform
1t is always easier to tear down than to build
up. They glIbly talk of monopoly, and of the
injustice Of taxing the farmer TO pay the manu-
facturer. They assume it to be an economic
truth, that the cost of every article is increased
by the amount of the duty on that article
though 1t has been exploded long ago. Why
before manufacture ofsteel rails was begun in
America the price was $3.50 per ton. Under the
competitions of American rail mills, built mn
under tariff of SIS per ton steel rails thew
sold in 1886 at S26 so per ton with a tariff
per 10. and the best American steel rails al
$3.50 per 100 lbs made by American WOrkmen
from American ores. we who can remember
paying ten cents per h. for poorer stock can
smile atthe cry of robbery and monopoly
With q tax on refined sugar of 81 cents uer
h., we buy the best at cents for A nlerican re
fined sugars. DO not people know that there
never was q time before this when all fine
staple articles bought by the farmer could be
had so cheaply as now?
Can any one point to any monopoly in man
ufactures, other than such as our ratent laws
secure to the inventor and his assignees?
Under the operation of cur tariff the great
Scotch manufactures Of thread, Coats and
Clark have built up great factories near New
York, employing thousands of workmen, all
helping us bear the burdens of taxation.
is not thread lower than ever before
SILK manufacture under a like impulse has
increased from nothing to an annual product
of S40,000,Ge0
Analline dyes which We're formerly made
abroad are now made in this country.
one OF the greatest triumpls of American
skill and art is found in the watch trade.
a oh hpN WON